Acute spinal injury is a major public health problem. Spinal cord injuries resulting in paralysis or other severe neurological morbidity are caused by both acute trauma and acute manifestations of systemic disease. Traumatic spinal cord injury is biased toward young people and can lead to life-long paraparesis or quadriparesis. Acute spinal cord trauma is caused by motor vehicle accidents, falls, diving accidents, penetrating wounds (e.g., gunshots and knife wounds), and sports-related incidents. Acute spinal injuries reflecting systemic disease include acute epidural compression of the spinal cord. Causes of acute epidural spinal cord compression include ruptured discs, metastatic tumor, infection with acute epidural abcess, acute ischemic manifestation of osteophytes, vertebral collapse due to tumors, osteopenia, osteoporosis, or rheumatoid arthritis. There is currently no effective treatment for spinal cord pathology in any of these conditions, with the exception of high-dose glucocorticoid treatment of acute traumatic spinal cord injury which, although clinically accepted, has minimal efficacy.
In addition to the primary injury to the spinal cord, in the days after initial injury, secondary injury occurs. This occurs as the effects of the initial injury spread. Secondary injury complicates functional recovery following spinal cord injury, but the mechanisms leading to degeneration of tissue outside traumatic lesions has been poorly understood.
The present invention is directed to overcoming the deficiencies in the art.